What is the legacy of our city? As the cradle of liberty, the birthplace of the nation, Philadelphia has a tradition of facing injustice with protest, dissent, and community.

“Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last year, the Caucus of Working Educators wrote a Racial Justice Statement in response to the stark inequalities that still exist within our local and greater community that resulted in the murders of unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police officers, unchecked mass incarceration, and the ongoing shuttering and defunding of public schools in Black and Brown neighborhoods. As unionized educators, we have a moral obligation to affirm that Black lives matter.

With this in mind, the Caucus of Working Educators is planning a week of activities and teaching informed by the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.

It has always been a mission of the Caucus of Working Educators to stand for social justice both in public education as well as the larger community. In spite of the surprising news that came with yesterday’s election results, we remain steadfast in our mission.

WE will fight for the rights of unions to exist and for workers to fight for fair salaries and working conditions. WE will continue to oppose the school-to-prison pipeline. WE will stand with our immigrant students, and respect their rights to a decent education and livelihood. WE will demand that our students are free from violence in their schools and in the communities where they live. WE will fight to have our LGBTQ student population’s rights and dignity respected. WE will ensure that students of color receive equal treatment to their white peers.

WE will continue to fight for educational and socioeconomic justice within and beyond our school walls. WE will never tolerate anything less than what is best for our students, our city, and our profession.

Three weeks away from election day, virtually every major poll has both the state of Pennsylvania and the country as a whole going Democrat for the presidential election.

In response to this, many potential voters and volunteers are asking: Does my effort really matter this year? This presidential election season has been exceptionally contentious. And many voters have mixed feelings about even heading to the polls after such a contentious primary season.

However, to focus exclusively on the presidential election ignores the vast majority of seats, and political realities, that will be decided on November 8th. Even though the national race grabs media attention -- it is the local races that need you to turn out and vote!

Here are just a few “down ticket” races in around the city and state that will be decided by handfuls of votes:

On Friday, October 14th, the School District of Philadelphia announced raises for employees who work at the central office (440 N. Broad Street) while excluding their colleagues who are represented by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Hundreds of hard-working individuals will receive a well-deserved 2% raise, either now or in July (depending on seniority). But hundreds of equally hard-working employees will not -- because the school district continues to make insufficient offers to the PFT at the bargaining table.

This move suggests that the District is ready to pay up, if only the PFT would agree to their proposed terms for a new contract. But the unfortunate truth is that the District is still shortchanging both its PFT and non-PFT employees.

For 15 years, Philadelphia schools have been run by an unaccountable, undemocratic, unpopular, and unsuccessful administration – the School Reform Commission.

Last year, more than 75% of Philadelphia voters approved a referendum to abolish the SRC. Why? Perhaps because the SRC’s history is plagued by corruption, unconstitutional acts, disrespect for its own employees and students, and utter inefficacy. The ongoing, state-generated budget crisis should put to rest any argument that continuing to give away control of our school district will somehow increase our access to state funding.

The only legally realistic path for the abolition of the SRC is for it to vote to disband itself. The current members have been unwilling to do so. However, the pending resignations of Commissioners Neff and Houstoun, and the upcoming end of term for Commissioner Simms, creates an opportunity for Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf to appoint a majority who will vote to disband the SRC.

Last week, the PFT members at Central High School - regardless of caucus affiliation - embarked upon a letter-writing campaign that we hope will set in motion a movement that will be replicated throughout the district. The action itself is a symbol of solidarity designed to urge the School District of Philadelphia to resume contract negotiation talks with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

The idea was the brainchild of Erica Catlin, a caucus member and English teacher at Central:

This message is from Anissa Weinraub, a teacher at the Academy at Palumbo.

Attention All PFT members: Our PSERS pension is funding the violation of human rights, Native American land rights, and the potential poisoning of our national water supply. Here's how to tell PSERS to divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline:

Join the Caucus of Working Educators and Philly educators for a trip to the hottest ticket since Hamilton! Travel with us on Saturday, October 22nd to Washington D.C. to see the brand-new Smithsonian museum dedicated to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture!

Some of the exhibits at the NMAAHC include items owned by Harriet Tubman, the glass-topped casket used for Emmett Till’s viewing (a courageous choice by his mother to highlight the brutality, illegality, and immorality of lynching), and a dress Rosa Parks was sewing the day she refuse to comply with racist Jim Crow laws. These are just a few of the more than 36,000 artifacts collected by the museum.

The Caucus has managed to get 50 tickets to this important new museum for Saturday October 22, 2016. Join us for a bus trip down to D.C. We will leave MLK High School at 8:00 AM and return at 6:00 PM. Tickets are $40.00 and include a boxed lunch. Children under 11 are free (limit is two children per paying adult).

Tickets are first come, first served. To reserve your ticket for this event call or email the following Caucus members:

Thanks to all who turned out for the Labor Day rally and parade this morning on Columbus Boulevard. Rank and file members were out in force, alongside union members from all over the city and region.

During the rally, PFT president Jerry Jordan called on our union brothers and sisters for solidarity and support as Philadelphia educators enter their fourth year without a contract. The Caucus of Working Educators was happy to echo this statement with a banner dropped along the parade route.

As we enter a new school year, do not let our contract battle stay invisible. Share this message with your families, neighbors, networks, and communities. Let them know that we are showing up to school every day despite years of wage freezes, disastrous outsourcing, and continued disrespect on the part of our employer, the School District Philadelphia.

Parents and students are the most important allies that teachers’ unions must embrace to secure a strong contract and better education for children.

Families see a site for just the few years that children attend a school, and many misunderstand the gradual return of some staff over the past few years as improvement, without seeing the net loss over the longer term. We still have not returned to pre-2013 levels of funding and staffing, and we cannot allow the lingering “Doomsday Budget” to become the “new normal.”

Parents need the constant reminder that educators’ working conditions are their children’s learning conditions, and once a year we have the opportunity to build solidarity with thousands of families across the city: Back To School Night!

So... Get A Rally Going At Your Back To School Night!

For the past two years, staff at several schools have hit the pavement with signs, flyers, chalk, and political theater before BTSN with a great response from parents and the press. We need to take our message city-wide this year! It will look different at every school, but here are some tips:

Stage your rally immediately before your official BTSN start time when parents are arriving.

Build solidarity with your parents by contacting your Home & School Association or key parent leaders in advance and ask for their support in raising awareness. Invite parents to come early and join educators outside the school before the official BTSN begins.

Get the real numbers affecting your school, and don’t just include your pay and benefits. Be sure to highlight the direct impact that cuts and freezes have on kids: Larger class-sizes, lost programs, no library, fewer counselors, part-time nurse, old textbooks, broken furniture, dirty classrooms, deferred maintenance, no NTA’s, cuts in total budget, cuts in per-pupil spending. Ask your principal for some of these numbers.

Make a leaflet to hand out. Include those numbers, and links for families to get involved in the struggle! Here’s an example leaflet you can copy.

Create theater and symbolic displays that drive home the impact of cuts. In the past, staff have brought out student desks to show what a 59-student classroom looks like, set up displays of battered old textbooks, staged a bookselling of Driven By Data books, and collected supply donations from parents.

Make a What’s NOT Back To School banner

If your principal is sympathetic, ask her to join you, and see if some staff can remain outside for a short time after the start of BTSN, and plan for some parents to stay outside to continue the message.

Take Photos and share your action

Once inside, continue the conversation as much as possible. Add a slide to your back to school night presentation about how budget cuts are affecting your school this year.

The beginning of the school year is very busy, but colleagues working together can pull together a successful rally very quickly. Central teacher KD Davenport describes how she turned an idea into a hugely successful rally in just a matter of days:

I got an immediate positive response from my colleagues. People were amazing about contributing their gifts: One creative colleague suggested that we line up 59 desks to represent the number of students in an Algebra class; another put together a flier of facts and figures; still others translated that flier into Spanish and Chinese. Once we had a flyer made up, we adapted it into a press

release and sent out a blast via email and Twitter to the media. Word quickly spread and on Back To School Night we were joined by reporters and photographers from NBC 10, ABC 6, The Inquirer, and WHYY Newsworks.

Our PFT building committee was incredibly supportive and publicized the event to the entire staff. Our administration was also on board. Our principal came outside and spoke to the press, and we even got our Alumni and Home and School associations involved. Helen Gym showed up, as did Jerry Jordan. And we did it all in a matter of days!